White Water Moon
by Archedes
Summary: Long before falling into the clutches of the sinister Orochimaru, Suigetsu aspired to become one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Little did he realize that impressing Zabuza Momochi was easier said than done. Pre-Shippuuden


"I'm a guy."

And then there was silence. The type of silence where you could really stop and smell the nature: the pine wafting in from the surrounding forest, the salt rising up from the sea, and the aroma of newly bloomed flowers painting the air. The type of silence where you could hear how loud songbirds actually are, and then realize how much you really wish they'd shut up. The type of silence that is so stiflingly awkward that you actually start to sweat a little and look around, hoping upon hope that a band of marauders would stumble upon the clearing and massacre you on the spot. Oh look, a wild tangent.

Suigetsu squinted and leaned forward. "Are you sure?"

[S]He laughed. It was a soft, tinkling noise. Like bells, or singing angels, or other things that the white-haired lad was too manly to think. He had a reputation to uphold, you know. "Yes, I am sure. My name is Haku."

Suigetsu was thrown for a loop. Being taught that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, etc. But then finding out that the duck was actually a _guy_ duck. Now that was shocking. Haku was around his age, yet his hair was much longer, stretching down to pool about his shoulder blades. His voice was high-pitched, even for a pre-pubescent boy, and his face just screamed 'Hello world! I'm gender-confused!'Not to mention the pink kimono… "And you are?"

Violet eyes blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. Suigetsu had been staring (not like he cared), and Haku was pretending not to have noticed. What a gentlemen. "Suigetsu Hōzuki."

The dark-haired boy smiled as he got to his feet, pausing to brush off his kimono before picking up his basket of flowers. Suigetsu folded his arms. "Zabuza told me that you would be coming, Mr. Hōzuki. Please follow me." And Haku turned on his sandaled heels and strode off into the forest.

The water nin sighed as he followed, hands behind his head. _Zabuza sure has lowered his standards. Ah well. As long as I get to kill someone, I'll tolerate this weirdo._

"_Look, lady, I don't have time for your dawdling. Move outta my way, I'm looking for someone."_

"_Who are you looking for?" Bright brown eyes and long black hair blocked his path to the Land of Waves. She was kneeling amongst the flowers, effectively closing off the thin dirt path that wove through the small clearing._

Haku led him to a sleazy-looking inn on the outskirts of the town. Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist, sat at the bar, a shot glass in one hand and the hilt of his Executioner's Blade in the other. He was the only one there, besides the nervous-looking bartender. Suigetsu cocked his head: Momochi couldn't have been more obvious if he tried. Not that anyone in the Land of Waves _could_ take down one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Although that certainly would have made the white-haired boy's job much easier.

The swordsman's eyes snapped to Haku and then Suigetsu as they entered. His greeting was a slight narrowing of the eyes before he turned back to his drink. His mouth-bandages were hanging loosely from his neck. "Zabuza, your associate is here." Haku bowed, the epitome of respect, before standing, hands folded, in front of the missing-nin. Suigetsu tried not to roll his eyes. And failed.

"So you're the fresh meat, eh?" Zabuza's voice was hoarse and reeked of saké. He drained his shot glass.

"Suigetsu Hōzuki," he said with a confident smirk.

"You don't look like much." The missing-nin ordered another drink.

"Says the man whose servant dresses in women's clothes."

Haku's face was blank, as if he was informed of that on a regular basis. Or he didn't care. Zabuza chuckled. "In two month's time, a man named Tazuna will be traveling here. I've been ordered to kill him. You have until then. I advise you to catch on quickly; I don't have the patience to repeat myself."

"_I'll tell you, but on one condition." His eyes had a mischievous glint. No… He wouldn't kill this one. Yet. "You agree to go on a date with me."_

_She laughed as if he had said the funniest thing in the world. He frowned. "I don't think so, sir." Her smile was dazzling._

"Yeah yeah yeah." Suigetsu waved his hand dismissively. "So what's first, _sensei_?"

Zabuza got up from his stool, hefting the giant Executioner's Blade onto his back. The bartender came over, his expression reminiscent of a spooked rabbit. "Uh… s-sir… Y-you haven't p-p-paid…" the short, bald man sputtered like an ungreased wheel.

The swordsman ignored him, walking out the door with Haku on his heels. Suigetsu gave the bartender a wolfish grin. "Don't worry. _I'll_ cover Zabuza-sensei's tab."

"Y-you will?"

_**Drip.**_

_He scoffed. "What, you got a boyfriend or something?"_

"_Not quite."_

"Sorry, I don't hit girls."

Zabuza, sitting on a low branch in a nearby tree, looked to all the world to be extremely bored. Haku stood in a half-flooded field a few paces away, his frilly kimono replaced by a turtle-neck sweater and a green, low-necked yukata. His hair was in a covered-bun, two bangs securely tied, with a Kiri forehead protector wrapped around his brow. Suigetsu caught a flash of metal as the other boy repositioned his hands, thin senbon needles sitting snugly between his digits. "Then go back to wherever you came from. Quit wasting my time." Zabuza glared, one arm draped lazily across a bent knee.

"No, no. You got it all wrong." Suigetsu smiled, revealing all of his pointed teeth. "I don't _hit_ girls; I don't have a problem with _killing_ them, though."

"You could not kill me even if you tried, Mr. Hōzuki," Haku stated calmly. "I have something you do not. And as long as I have that, I will not be permitted to die." (0)

Suigetsu thumbed his nose. "Is that a challenge?"

Haku inclined his head slightly, observing the water-nin's predatory smirk with subdued curiosity. "'Kay. Let me use the Executioner's Blade, then," the pale-haired boy tossed over his shoulder, taking a quick sip from the water bottle at his hip.

"No."

Suigetsu turned, an indignant expression on his face. "Why n—"

"_Then why not?" He was frowning, arms crossed._

_She stopped laughing, an amused smile still plastered on her face. And then she sighed, as if what she was about to tell him was something she had said a million times, and would probably say again a million more._

"_I'm a guy."_

The air grew heavy with chakra, effectively cutting off Suigetsu. The wind grew cold, particles of frost landing on the water nin's bare arm and crystallizing the flesh. "What the—"

Haku's arm was up, performing seals one-handed a few inches from his nose. Suigetsu gritted his teeth, removing a kunai from his left holster and amputating the afflicted arm. With a squelch, the watery limb fell, turning to solid ice long before it hit the ground. "So you use the elements wind and water to create ice, eh?" He smirked, regenerating his arm. "Looks like I'm at a bit of a disadvantage."

"So it would seem." Thin slivers of floe accumulated around Haku's body. They shivered into needle-like shapes, glistening like translucent metal. Hundreds upon hundreds of ice shards formed from the waterlogged air. Suigetsu narrowed his eyes. He could manipulate water in his sleep, yes. Ice, no.

With a final, decisive hand seal, the needles flew forward, faster than Suigetsu's eyes could follow. Haku leapt back to avoid the crossfire, making sure to land on the half of the clearing that was grass. The water-nin merely smirked indifferently just before the shards made contact. The dark-haired boy narrowed his eyes.

"_So you're going after the Executioner's Blade?"_

"_Yeah. I figure I should give it a taste for my blood before Zabuza Momochi dies."_

"_When?"_

"_Not for a while. We still have a lot of training left to do. I wanna make sure I'm at my prime when I kick the Demon of the Hidden Mist's ass."_

"_Don't be so arrogant, Suigetsu. It'll be your downfall."_

"You managed to avoid my Thousand Needles of Death. Not bad," Haku murmured as he watched the white-haired boy rise up from the flooded half of the clearing. The water writhed as it molded to reform Suigetsu's body. "Of course you'll need more than a secret technique if you want to beat me."

The water nin grinned, stemming chakra to the soles of his feet to stay afloat. "I'm just getting started."

Suigetsu rocketed toward Haku, twin walls of liquid rising up in his wake. He gripped the kunai, twirling it between his fingers as he ran. The other boy brought his senbon up, flinging them at his opponent as he began to sign with his free hand. Suigetsu deflected the needles with his knife and aimed a slash at Haku's throat.

The dark-haired boy disappeared in an explosion of water. Suigetsu straightened, whipping his head in every direction. Haku was nowhere in sight. _Damn, a water clone… Where'd he go? _The air once again became weighted down with chakra. An unconscious shiver ran down Suigetsu's spine.

"_**Demonic Ice Mirrors!**_"

"_I'm leaving in three weeks."_

"_For the blade?"_

"_Yeah. You're coming, right?"_

"_Like I'd ever let _you_ go on without me and have all the fun."_

"Not good," Suigetsu muttered to himself. Twenty-one slabs of ice surrounded him, all reflecting the same thing. Haku smiled lightly.

"Your move, Mr. Hōzuki. You'll find that my Crystal Ice Mirrors are not easily broken."

"We'll see about that." The white-haired boy formed the rooster hand seal. _**Water Style: Water Hardened Drill!**_

Suigetsu's left arm inflated at a swift rate, the skin liquefying and shifting to the sound of sloshing water. Haku _hmph_'d. The other boy brandished his hand-turned-weapon before plunging it into the nearest mirror. There was a horrible grinding as tiny bits of ice took to the air, crystallizing where they landed. Suigetsu grunted as his hand was decimated, leaving nothing but a translucent, dripping stub. The mirror was left unscathed.

"Worth a shot. Time to get serious." He grinned as his limb grew back. Suigetsu's cheer vanished, however, when a large force barreled into his back, sending him sprawling to the earth in a mess of limbs. (1) He gathered himself into a sitting position. "Shit…"

"Is that the best you can do?" Suigetsu could see Zabuza from the gaps between the mirrors. The missing-nin was sitting, cross-legged, on his tree branch with his elbows resting on his knees, his hands splayed to support his cheeks. The pose struck Suigetsu as juvenile, which was really saying something coming from him. "Foiled by a kekkei genkai."

Suigetsu scrambled to his feet, only to be struck down once more by the same unseen force. "My Demonic Ice Mirrors not only prevent you from escaping, but they allow me to hide within them as well. By jumping from mirror to mirror, I can easily strike you down without you even seeing me," Haku's voice emanated from every direction at once, making pinpointing his location impossible. He didn't sound smug or even a little triumphant. _What a weirdo…_

"Ice isn't as invincible as you say," Suigetsu stated as his hands came together in lieu of signing. _**Snake… Ram… Monkey…**_

_**Boar… Horse…**_ "Ice melts."

_**Tiger!**_

"_Snake, ram, monkey, boar… no, _boar**, **_not dragon… Horse and tiger."_

"_Where did you learn this?"_

"_I paid some guy who'd supposedly killed an Uchiha. He said this was one of their prized jutsus."_

"_And you believed him."_

"…_Well it doesn't hurt to have a fire style…"_

"_You're so gullible, Mangetsu."_

_**Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique! **_(2)

A giant sphere of pure orange flame blossomed from where Suigetsu's fingers met his lips. It careened toward the northernmost mirror, crashing into it in a flurry of sizzles and hisses. When the smoke cleared, only the very bottom of the rim was melted, icy water dripping down onto the grass. "I believe it's my turn, Mr. Hōzuki." Haku disappeared from the mirrors, his image replaced by a blinding white light.

Suigetsu made a mad dash for the small puddle he had created. He shielded his eyes. "_**Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!**_" Shard after unforgiving shard shot from twenty-one mirrors. The water nin bobbed and weaved, a sharp twinge in his calf telling him that Haku was kind enough to toss senbon into the mix.

_Almost there…_ Suigetsu dove forward as slashes assaulted his body from every direction. He registered the sensation of his fingers touching water, before Haku darted out from the top mirror, intent on the pressure point just above the other boy's collarbone. (3)

"_Suigetsu… You'll still go, right?"_

"_Of course not!"_

"_You have to."_

"_There's no point without you. We were supposed to do this together."_

"…_Do it for me…"_

"…_Shut up."_

"_At least… Get the Executioner's Blade. You shouldn't throw away all we've worked for… just… because I'm—"_

"_Shut up! You're _not_ dying, Mangetsu."_

There was a flash as the afternoon sun was reflected and amplified by Haku's mirrors. Zabuza perked up. "What a shame… The kid had spunk." He got to his feet and stepped onto the ground. He sounded insincere even to his own ears, and that made him laugh. "Ah well."

Haku's jutsu terminated, and the tinkling of glass filled the clearing as the mirrors shattered one by one. Mist rose up from the water and obscured the boy. The missing-nin began to walk, but stopped suddenly. He sensed two chakras coming from the direction of where there should only be one. As the mist cleared, Zabuza's eyes widened, and were it not for his mouth bandages, he might have gaped a bit.

Suigetsu, covered from head to foot in shallow cuts, stood behind Haku, arm raised. A kunai was pressed to the dark-haired boy's throat. The water-nin sported a toothy grin that was far from lacking in the insolence department. Haku, however, wore a serene smile, as if he was so often put into these positions that having a weapon at his neck no longer fazed him. "It seems you've beaten me, Mr. Hōzuki."

"Suigetsu," the white-haired boy said, taking away the kunai. "Mr. Hōzuki was my father. I didn't like him much."

By that time, Zabuza had carefully picked up the pieces of his shattered composure and mended them. It wouldn't do for him to look _astounded_ at the efforts of thirteen year-old brat. He, too, had a reputation to uphold. Suigetsu looked to him, and the water nin's expression was positively shit-eating. Zabuza glared. "Bet you're just _dying_ to know how I did that."

"The suspense is killing me," Zabuza snubbed him. But of course, sarcasm was utterly lost on Suigetsu Hōzuki. He thumbed his nose in a way that infuriated the missing-nin.

"Well, any _idiot_ could tell that a little bit of fire wouldn't melt those mirrors. They were laced with hard-packed chakra. The fireball was more of an experiment, really." This was Suigetsu's favorite part: the monologue. "This clearing is filled with water; and not just the liquid, but vapors too. It was an ideal spot which immediately put me at an advantage despite your little ice tricks. Getting stranded on land was a minor drawback, but easily dealt with. The earth here is deeply saturated, even the parts that _aren't_ flooded.

"I used the fireball technique to see if I could get the mirrors to melt even a little. Just a bit of surface water was all I needed. The tiny puddle I had created soaked through the top layer of earth and joined with the particles beneath There's more water than dirt. All I had to do was get even a single finger in that puddle so I—"

"You got to the puddle and used your Hydration Technique to liquefy yourself and effectively escape underground," Haku cut him off, much to the water-nin's chagrin. "You resurfaced in the flooded portion of the clearing and reformed yourself, knowing my guard would be down for the moment due to the surprise of you suddenly disappearing. You suppressed your chakra and hid in the mist so you could get close to me and finish the coup."

"Eh, yeah." Suigetsu's expression was toeing the line between a frown and a pout.

"_Why does the Land of Waves have to be so far away?" Suigetsu whined as he trudged down a thin dirt road. The forest, surrounding the path on both sides, was breathing down his neck. "What's that…?"_

_There was a break in the trees just up ahead. Suigetsu would have clicked his heels and skipped on ahead, had he not been in his right mind (although he never was). Instead, he opted for jogging. _Finally I'll be out of this forsaken forest! Hello buildings, ocean, boats, and… flowers?_ It was a clearing full of colorful petals and swaying stems. The breeze was deliciously aromatic, having only a hint of salt. The Land of Waves was still a ways off. Suigetsu felt like screaming. And scream he would, had he not noticed another person in the vicinity._

_It was a girl with long black hair cascading down a pink silk kimono. She was kneeling, a basket in her lap. Her pale fingers danced among the flowers, and every so often she would pluck one, smell it briefly, and finally lay it to rest among the others in their woven bed. "Uh… hi." Suigetsu deadpanned. _What's a girl doing out here? I thought there were bandits in this forest…

"_Hello." She cocked her head, staring at him as if he were the most interesting thing in the world. "Why do you look so sad?"_

"…_Sad…?"_

"_Were you crying?"_

"Crying_? Shinobi don't _cry_."_

"_Then why are your eyes red?"_

"_Look, lady, I don't have time for your dawdling. Move outta my way, I'm looking for someone."_

They were back at the inn. Zabuza was sprawled across the only bed, leaving Suigetsu and Haku to the mats on the floor. "The letter said there would be two of you." The swordsman's dark eyes were locked on the white-haired boy, and he shifted uneasily.

"Change of plans."

"Which were?"

Suigetsu paused. He paused for so long that Zabuza was about to ask again, with more venom and authority and I'll-show-you-why-they-call-me-a-demon-if-you-don't-answer-me-right-this-instant. The missing-nin opened his mouth, but the boy quickly cut him off. "My older brother. He was supposed to come with me. He died a few days ago."

Zabuza laughed. "Don't look so serious, kid. If you want to be one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, you better get used to death. And let's get something straight right now." He was in a sitting position and in Suigetsu's before the latter could even take a breath. Their noses were less than three inches apart. The water nin didn't falter. "If you're not prepared to kill, then you know where the door is. I don't train ninja-wannabes."

"You obviously didn't see what became of that interesting little bartender, did you?" Violet clashed with black.

Then Zabuza leaned back, a smirk creasing his mouth bandages. "Good."

"It's okay, you know," Haku said to the white-haired boy long after the swordsman had fallen asleep. "I cried when my parents died. If it's any consolation."

Suigetsu was taken off guard. He quickly got his bearings, his expression hardening. He pulled the thin quilt up to his chin before rolling over to face the wall. "It's not."

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**0.) **Reference to the season one episode where Haku states that as long as he is useful to Zabuza, he will not die.

**1.) **Seeing as nobody really knows whether or not Suigetsu's Hydration Technique is a result of Orochimaru's experimentation, or just a secret jutsu that he learned: I've taken it upon myself to combine them. Here, Suigetsu is not actually made of water, but by focusing his chakra he can liquefy himself. For example, when Haku hit him, he did not turn into a puddle because he was caught off-guard and could not concentrate his chakra to avoid the hit. In the anime/mange, however, he turned into water automatically, as shown during the times when Karin randomly beat him up. Hopefully that's not _too_ confusing…

**2.) **…Well _come on_. It could happen. Besides, it just seems like bad business to me for a shinobi to have only one jutsu style.

**3.) **That pressure point would knock Suigetsu out, not kill him. Because we all know that Haku would not kill a fly. Unless that fly had a gun to Zabuza's head and was screaming, "I'LL SHOOT! DAMMIT!"

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Please forgive the massive amount of in-chapter author notes. Also, I feel the need to clarify that Mangetsu is NOT an OC. He is (was) in fact Suigetsu's brother who did in fact die. I don't know how, therefore I did not write how. He was only mentioned in passing (by Kisame, I think). I left it open for the readers to interpret. Zabuza's sword has a million names: I just chose the one I liked the best. **_Bold italics_** signify jutsus.

Con crit a happy author does make. A big shout out to my best friend, who does not have an FFnet account, for reading over this before I published it (you rock my socks, Brie).


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